What?!? No Family Circus? That's a damn crime against humanity, sir. A crime against humanity.

Drabble is still going strong because the father in the strip (Ralph) is married to a grown up Marcie from peanuts. So there's sort of a nepotism thing going. Though Peppermint Patty is pretty broke up about Marcie's marriage.

Family Circus sucks. I hate them so much. It would be better if Billy beat Jeffy.

One positive thing about Garfield, however, is that it spawned "Garfield without Garfield", a desolate, misanthropic piece of demented brilliance that more than justifies its parent strip's creation and continued circulation

Family Circus was on his last list. This is 10 more comics that need to end.

Garfield should keep going, if only to keep Garfield Minus Garfield going.

I cant wait to see who would play crankshaft in the next casting call article!!!!
I vote for Christopher Lee

I'm ashamed to admit that I actually laughed at that Beetle Bailey strip. It's never happened before, I swear.

Also, I know I'm the only one, but I prefer the Garfield modification that only removes Garfield's thought bubbles, not Garfield entirely. Then it's just the story of a sad, lonely man that talks to his cat... To which I can relate.

I'll defend Baby Blues only to say that it was actually entertaining in it's first few years.

As soon as they had the third kid and all the children STOPPED AGING, that's when it all went to hell. That's also when they started using the joke recycler.

Parenthood is tough, kids are gross, and getting a movie from Redbox is cheaper than dinner, a movie, and a babysitter. There's 80% of Baby Blues punchlines.

Didn't Bruce tinsley get a DUI a while back?

i say luann gets the ax!!! Talk bout horrible artwork and very bad story lines. She crushs on a guy to the point where she is borderline stalking him!!! Might as well have an FFF story about it on...
I just might read it

This list is a pile of bull. I mean all the strips need to end but Garfield is a fresh as ever.

i hate family circus so much, i feel it should be on this list every time you do one. i like to slice out weird dialog from other comics and tape it over the dialog to make jeffie say cruel and strange things. god i hate it so much.

I agree with everything BUT Garfield...+ Lazy Orange pussy 4 life!

No Dennis the Menace of For Better or Worse?!

Maybe the next list should be all those newer, equally crappy comic strips, like Boondocks, Rhymes with Orange or Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet.

Did you ever wonder if the founding fathers foresaw a need for a right to shut the hell up but just decided it was more entertaining this way?

ALL THOSE COMICSTRIPS ARE AS UNFUNNY AS THE AWFUL WORLD IN WHICH WE ALL LIVE!!!

Funky Winkerbean = NOT FUNNY.

Garfield, I feel, used to be original and funny during maybe its first decade of existence. Since then, it's just been a sad shell of its former self.

Love Is, even as a kid, always made me uncomfortable.

Basically, I think the reasons comics like this spend so many decades in newspapers is because a lot of people like the comfort of seeing them there every day, even if the jokes are stale. People like most of us here, who would like to see something more original, are probably in the minority. I've noticed that many new comics that have potential don't last long in newspapers, and readers even seem to complain about them because they're not more of the same!

Thankfully, we do occasionally get a gem, like The Far Side.

But newspapers are dying as it is, and I bet many of these comics will go with them.

Well they can't cancel Marmaduke (sarcasm) because sadly, they are making a major motion picure- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392197/

I saw the title of this article and knew good old Mallard had to be involved. If there's anyone who really hasn't seen it yet, here's the only Mallard Fillmore strip worth reading:

http://bit.ly/5rbf2a (real one)

Created in response to this:

http://bit.ly/76P6du (parody)

Oh, and as far as 'what the fuck is wrong with Tinsley', he's drunk. All the time. It's as simple as that.

I loved Garfield as a kid, although this was some 25 years ago. Has the fat cat really been around that long? Guess so. And just where the hell DID Lyman disappear to?

Love is.... a comic strip for frikkin' pedophiles.

The absolute #1 comic strip that has far outlived it's time has got to be Cathy. Wasn't funny twenty years ago. Not funny now. Just why is this sad strip still being seen in thousands of papers? We all get the joke; Cathy worries about her weight and her relationships. Again, let me repeat, Not Funny!

For my money, the only comic strip that I go out of my way to read every week is Prince Valiant. Still the classic which all others are measured against.

Doc

I see a lot of love for the Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes, but one must recall that the authors of both comics made a conscious decision to end them before they became stale, irrelevant, and relegated to these lists. It is a measure of the integrity of both authors that they decided to end their tenures before descending into self-parody (I hope the royalties checks are still coming in for those guys - especially since I haven't seen either author do anything really significant in the last 20 years).

I agree for the most part (I do have a nostalgic fondness for Garfield), but what about Marvin? That is a truly horrible strip, filled with dirty diaper jokes. Ew.

this is the reason why i go to webcomics, so o can skip all the "drabble".

ahahaha!! see what i did there?! ahahahaha!!

...-sigh- yeah...

Honestly, Garfield and Peanuts together introduced me to comics, and while I don't read the new Garfields, I do have a fondness for roughly the first 20 years of it. Should it end? Not as much as the rest on this list (again, mostly for Garfield minus Garfield, which Jim Davis actually has enjoyed, according to a collection of the strips...though that maybe because he gets paid for it?).

Think we could someday get a "Worst Webcomics" list someday? There are plenty, both still ongoing, have ended, or are 'on hiatus.'

I don't know what this says about me, but I actually like Mallard Filmore. Though I will say I think you are sorely underestimating its target audience. It is still running and after 9/11 was one of the highest rated strips.

I think it's hilarious that Hagar the Horrible gets picked apart for recycling it's art. This is hilarious because I'm like a second or third cousin to the guy who works on it now (only met him once, didn't know he did Hagar at the time), and I recycle my art ALL THE TIME for my webcomic. I guess it runs in the family. But then, I'm a writer, not an artist...

That said, Hagar deserves to be on this list for it's lack of hilarity, just as much as everything else.

A quick defense of Garfield: Not only did it give us Garfield without Garfield, it also gave us the Saturday morning cartoon show, Garfield and Friends. Yeah, the actual bits about the titular feline are lame, but those adventures on the farm with Orson the pig and Roy the rooster were classic. Weren't they?

could not agree more with this list for if beetle or other strips allowed real time in Beetle and his unit would all be long retired from the service by now. and Rex Morgan seems to focus more on Rex private life of trying to make the others in the strip execpt him as the only smart one. as for Marmaduke and garfield. a normal hell dog like marmaduke and a cat like garfield would be in pet heaven by now. the other ones on the list i by pass on the comic page

Oh! And, according to Homer Simpsons, Love Is... is about two naked eight year olds who can't read.

It is kinda sad that all these hacks (Minus Jim Davis) get paid to make this crap daily while this guy http://picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=308 has to sell books to get paid

20 comic strips that need to die, and Heathcliff is not mentioned even once in passing? For shame, Alicia. For shame.

Has anyone done a "10 comic strips that need to take over the 10 comic strips that need to @#$%ing end" list? Or are we at the point where can all concede that most newspapers need to fold up and blow away altogether?

I loved Garfield when I was little. My early mastery of the VCR ensured that I had all the episodes of Garfield and Friends on tape along with the few animated specials from the 80's. The stuff now just makes me kinda sad.

The end of the world has arrived! They're making a Marmaduke movie, I repeat, a MARMADUKE MOVIE!!! We're all gonna die!!!

Like everything I do this millennium, I read my comics online. There is priceless gold out there. Everything from the understated XKCD to the insanely funny Perry Bible Fellowship. SCREW newsprint. Time to die.

boring-ass white suburban nuclear family protagonists

Ah, yet another self-hating White outs himself...

I knew a girl who collected "love is..." comics.

In retrospect, I really shouldn't have.

Love is made number one ??? Love is, isn't bad at all. FAIL.

I'm wondering if Raising Hector is not as widely circulated as other comics. This piece of shit runs in my local newspaper. I gave it a fair shake when it debuted, but the thing is an abomination. The art is terrible, the sense of action amateurish, the writing pathetic and it's never once been funny.

If you must, you can check it out here. But don't say I didn't warn you.
http://www.raisinghector.com/

Love is.. probably did run in your local paper, you just didn't notice it. Its only two inches long and one column wide. Most papers use as page filler so it doesn't run on the comics page.

Someone's been reading the Comics Curmudgeon. .

No Doonesbury for a 2nd time around? REALLY?!?!?!?! It's a toss-up between Mark Trail and Doonesbury for my title of "Least Favorite Comic Srip Ever". Trail because of it's glacial pace and Doonesbury because the world really doesn't need anymore left-wingers patting themselves on the back, especially considering how completely unfunny the strip is. Meh, maybe next time...

Henry...bald ugly kid who's a mute...nuff said.

Zippy the Pinhead has NEVER made any sence to any one I know!
DUMP IT.

Marmaduke may be awful, but Marmaduke Explained is amazing. Good things can come out of terrible comic strips.

No, Crankshaft is awesome!

The thing is, Charles Schultz might've hated Garfield but he was no better. Yes, at one time it was clever but then he kept that sucker running on fumes long after it should've been retured and merchandized the hell out of it too.

I agree with this list except Baby Blues and Garfield. I still get a chuckle out of the former and Garfield minus Garfield has allowed me to reintroduce myself to the latter. Both are still great.

Owen Wilson as Marmaduke... His Bros better start a new suicide watch. Cause this looks like the actions of a man that wants to die.

though Jim Davis does appear to be cashing in on the g w/o g craze the guy does know when to endorse artistic re-imaginings. case in point: garfield's 9 lives. released back in the 80's (I think) it contained some realling interesting and down right disturbing retellings of the garfield mythos.

"come to mawma....". O_o

Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that about half the comments are from people who apparently cannot read?

This is part TWO, people! Garfield and most of the other "suggestions" (ie, "writer is an idiot for not including") were on part one. Part one which is linked to before the jump.

Its even called MORE comic strips.

I must side with the Garfield lovers. I'm sorry, but I love fat, orange pussy. What can I say?

O.K, here's some more that need to go- let the hating commence:
Broom Hilda (like Hagar, but about a witch)
Momma (Drabble meets Crankshaft)
Marvin (someone else mentioned this one, I second the motion)
Blondie (it's been around longer than most of the comics on either list- when it debuted, she was a flapper, for chrissakes)
Heathcliff (a Garfield rip-off. Think about it)
Andy Capp (the British Snuffy Smith)
Rose is Rose (Saccharin to the Nth degree)

So there's seven that need to go right there, and that's just off the top of my head.

Gah still no Fred Basset? That strip is worse than all of these combined!

I have a few suggestions for your next list.

"Rose is Rose" is just fucking awful. The author seems to believe cuteness and comedy are the same thing.

"May Worth" is essentially about an old lady who never forgives anyone. It is only good when other strips mock it.

"Ziggy" has ben stale and retarded for years.

"Rhymes with Orange" is poorly drawn, and I have no fucking clue what it is even about. As far as I know, it is about some bizarre ugly lady trying to compare things to other things and occasionally making a bad pun.

"For Better or Worse" is dumb. My aunt started sticking out her tongue while laughing just because the losers in that strip did it. I'm blaming it for my aunt's stupidity. Also, it is mostly recycled material now that was never really all that good in the first place.

"Hi and Lois" is shit. I heard it used to be funny, but sucks now. Also, someone told me it is a spin-off of Beetle Bailey.

"Prickly City" is ugly and about politics. It is also boring and devoid of likeable characters, let alone comedy.

"Sylvia" is stupid, ugly, inane, and the handwriting is nearly illegible.

Lastly, how could something as nihilstically bad as "Love Is" even exist? You would think it would have ended by now, but I guess some people like "cute" shit too much.

This is a well-written list! It's funny and compliments the previous one nicely. I'd never heard of "Love Is . . ." before and the fact that it exists at all makes me shudder.

What, no ZIGGY???. That piece of crap takes seconds of my life away everyday. You can't avoid it. It takes no time at all to read but the cummulative effect is making me homicidal. Ziggy has never said a pithy or funny or profound thing EVER. Put on some pants you freak and walk into traffic.

This is why I only read webcomics anymore. That way if I don't like them I can just hit the back button.

Meanwhile, Garfield strips without Garfield in them are wonderfully existential.

Love Is... needs a FFF.

Good list. Glad to see Marmaduke there as that dog is the fucking WORST.

Thanks to Lasagna Cat, I realized how truly and incredibly banal Garfield's humor actually is. And I think of it every time I hear "Eyes Without A Face" now too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ2q9NmYf6g

Three points:

1) The thing to remember about "Beetle Bailey" is that it's more of a documentary than it is a humor comic. The Aaaarmy is just as fucked up as the strip portrays, and there are a lot of Sergeants who not only are like Snorkle, they *are* Snorkle. The only really valid gaff is that Lt. Flap is still a Lt. Last I heard, Colon Powell retired as a General...

2) "Love Is" was deserving of death after the second strip hit the papers. It's a lingering herpes sore from the transition from the "Flower Power" hippie era to the "Let's be mellow" proto-disco era of the early 70's. Kill this, and the last vestige of the demon pact that brought us the Carpenters and John Denver will finally be eradicated.

3) Why the FUCK didn't "Family Circus" make this list, Rob? Were you daft, or did you simply take into account that FC is necessary for "Dysfunctional Family Circus", or for "Far Left Side" to do an Advent Calendar last motnth? Either way, Bill Keane is a schmuck, and his strip needs to go.

I agree with this list besides Rex Morgan, which has a tendency to be one of the funniest strips in the comic section thanks to Rex's cheerfully oblivious dickishness.

If anything should go on the chopping block, it's Marvin as it's tremendously awful. I'd say Curtis, but the sheer insanity of the Kwanza strips usually make up for the other fifty weeks a year. As is, it could be fixed by simply replacing those other fifty weeks with The Adventures of Doctor Horsehead.

2 things.

1. i'm surprised garfield wasn't on the last list.

2. if we are stuck with a marmaduke by tim burton starring johnny depp as marmaduke i will never forgive. hell, i may just tie you up and force you to watch it over and over and over again until your brain explodes from the horrendousness of it.

People, people, people! Before you waste any more time asking, "Why isn't [name of strip you hate] on the list?"....READ THE FIRST LIST! Garfield and Family Circus ARE THERE! And yes, they deserve to be.

Marmaduke, sad to say, isn't going anywhere. Not with the movie coming out next summer. With Owen Wilson as the voice of Marmaduke (who doesn't actually, y'know...TALK...in the strip).

Hagar was *slightly* funnier about 20 years ago when the original writer did it (more focus on Viking era issues - can't believe I just wrote that sentence). Now, AFAIK, it's done by his son. Total shite.

I think The Daily Show nailed Mallard Filmore in America: The Book...

No Rose is Rose? That is far worse than any on the list..

Well, what about good newspaper comics, like Lio, Get Fuzzy or Pearls Before Swine. I actually think that they're pretty good, with Lio being the best (think a weird combination of Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side and you've got Lio).

Went and pulled out Sunday's comics because I can never remember all the strips I just skip. Almost everything in there's in one of these two lists now or at least mentioned in passing.

Let's see if there's any others. Blondie? Nancy? Frank and Ernest? Prince Valiant?

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

There are only three strips that need to die for sheer shittiness.
1) Garfield
2) ANYTHING by, or associated with, Michael Fry. A N Y T H I N G.
3) The smug, assholic "Boondocks."

Four words: MARY MOTHER EFFING WORTH. Possibly the only comic to ever make me physically recoil from the paper. Saccharine I can deal with. I mean Family Circus is pretty repugnant but I just have to figure it's aimed at little kids who just don't know any better. But who in god's name is approving this disgustingly smug self-congratulatory slice of paranoid upper class white lady week after week?

http://joshreads.com/images/0508/i050807-8maryworth.gif

Seriously, it makes me physically sick.

I don't see anything wrong on Beetle Bailey.
But how about Archie?

How about a list of the greatest all time comic strips? Mine would look like this...
1. Calvin and Hobbes- Absolutely amazing, beautiful artwork. Witty, imaginative, and poignant at the same time- Watterson was the Mozart of comic strips.
2. The Far Side- Quirky, insightful, and always hilarious. Gary Larson's "strange" (for lack of a better word) drawing style couldn't have fit his humor better.
3. Luann- Growing up I could relate to all the trials and tribulations of trying to fit in, having crushes, and maturing. Evans' characters rang true to me.
4. Peanuts- The granddaddy of all strips. Like a snug blanket wrapped around you, it makes you feel warm and happy. While not groundbreaking by today's standards, it was quite innovative when it first appeared. Hell, it introduced a term to the English language- "security blanket".

The only shame is that 3 of the 4 comics I mentioned are no longer being made...

I've seen (in the past) Hagar comics where he "Vikes". As for "Love..is", although I agree with you, I can understand it. Who reads and buys such things and thinks they're "adorable"... women!!

I disagree with Garfield. I think Mutts should end, it's not funny

I know you said that you go so many responses to the point where a second list was necessary but now that I see it you shouldn't have written this. Actually, strike that. You should have just combined the list and culled the stragglers because out of the 20 comics there are maybe a dozen where you were easily able to fill the space. The rest felt like struggles where instead of actually insulting the content of the strip all you could do was rag on the artwork.

Don't you understand a main component of daily funnies? They're stylized. A lot of strip artists have more realistic drawings but they create the strip in a different way for fun, to give it a unique identity, etc. So when all you can do is talk about characters having big noses or both eyes on one side of their face you have to understand that it's done to make the strip "special." Do you think all of the characters in "Foxtrot" have square heads because the artist sucks? Of course not. It's a stylistic choice.

This seems like a lot of unnecessary hate but I'm not trying to go there man. You make tons of great points about a lot of strips that should die. But others it feels like you're weakly grasping just to fill out ten entries.

It really makes me happy to see I'm not the only one who would like Garfield to stick around. And he didn't even make the top of the list, that's even better.

Can't say I really care about the rest on the list, though. Seeya.

Tribune Media should give Brian Wood a three month run on "Hagar" just to shake things up.

Does anybody else remember Mother Goose and Grimm? I only remember seeing it when i would go to Michigan in the summers, and it was a terrible, pun-filled atrocity about Mother Goose and her dog Grimm.

Oh, or even fucking worse, that terrible, terrible Far Side knock-off Close to Home? Every time I see that lazy piece of shit comic in a newspaper and have to be reminded that this is what people wanted for their clever one panel strip instead of The Far Side, it makes me want to punch the next son of a bitch I see getting a chuckle from it

Wait...Mallard Fillmore somehow made it on this list--how I can't quite fathom--but Sally Forth got a free pass?

Are you high, dude?

Be careful what you wish for. I saved several particularly idiotic/fugly strips from back when "Tumbleweeds" was published. God, they are awful. Gloriously terrible. I kinda miss that strip now. The stuff that filled in the gap when it went (deservedly) belly-up is actually worse.

Appreciate the wretchedness of modern comics while you can. Comics Curmudgeon will help. http://joshreads.com/

But without these horrible comics, the Comics Curmudgeon wouldn't have his amazingly funny blog calling out all these stupidly unfunny comics. So there's that.

I think the original may have been the first article I read here at TR.

Marmaduke is absurdly awful. So horribly unfunny and pointless.

Another great article!
I would bet that the reason most of these comics keep on running is because they're "comfortable" and "safe". I wonder how many newspapers think comics-readers simply want bland comics to balance out the serious news. Readers don't want political satire or sharp humor- they want the same Beetle Bailey gag that's been running for the past 10 years.
Why else do so many newspapers STILL run Peanuts, how-many-years after Charles Shultz's death?

Anyway, two quick points:

1) Could you add the year when these comics started, like you did with the first list? It would be interesting to see when, exactly, these comics started.

2) You mention how horrible the artwork is (and I completely agree). In your description of Marmaduke, you compared the artwork to a Tim Burton movie.
Here's an idea for a Photoshop-contest: what would these comics look like "in real life", as in the people looked life-like, but with the comic strips' dimensions.

Or should I not suggest this because Hollywood studios might get an idea to make a movie out of these strips. Weren't two live-action Garfield movies bad enough?

I'm not sure the thing about Schulz hating Garfield is accurate. he once allowed Snoopy to appear in the Garfield strip after all.

Webcomics blow. End of story. I would rather read Ziggy than read webcomics. No-talent hacks.

'Love Is...' is REAL!? I thought that was just a joke from The Simpsons.

MIND = BLOWN, Holy Fuck...

You know what the worst part of "Baby Blues" is?

They have a show.

A goddamn animated show.

The fact something as ugly and unfunny as baby blues was granted animation when tons of good ideas are thrown out the window depresses me...

Almost as much as the plot itself does.

I know it tries, it REALLY tries to be funny and its utter failure makes it all the more irratating.

At least Rex Morgan consistently has a nice harem of hot chicks. Maybe the artist should go into a career of Rule 34.

One comic that I cannot abide is "Arlo and Janis". Borrrrring!! Not funny at all!!

CROCK. That's all that needs to be said.